Carmine Persico

Carmine John "Junior" Persico, Jr. (8 August 1933-) was boss of the Colombo crime family from 1973, succeeding Vincenzeo Aloi.

Biography
Carmine Persico was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1933, and he dropped out of high school at the age of sixteen, becoming the leader of the Garfield Boys street gang. During the 1950s, he was recruited into the Colombo crime family, and he participated in the 1957 murder of Albert Anastasia, shooting him in a barber shop. Persico would befriend Joe Gallo and side with him during his rebellion against Joe Profaci during the 1960s; in 1961, Profaci bribed Persico to betray the Gallo brothers. He became a capo after the war's end in 1963, and he was imprisoned for hijacking from 1971 to 1979. He became boss while in prison in 1973; he would spend all but four years of his reign in prison, overseeing several gang wars, major rackets, and murders. In 1991, Victor Orena rebelled against Persico's faction of the family, and Orena's 1992 arrest ended the war. Persico remained boss even as he was imprisoned in Butner, North Carolina.